Soul Shout!

AllMusic Review
by Alex Henderson

Here's how budget labels worked in the 1970s: an artist would be burning up the charts, and the budget label would try to cash in on his/her popularity by reissuing whatever recordings it could get its hands on. The material on budget LPs wasn't necessarily first-rate, but because the LPs were very affordable, they were a bargain for serious vinyl collectors. Soul Shout! is among the numerous budget LPs by the Isley Brothers that surfaced in the 1970s. Pickwick and other 1970s budget labels obviously weren't blind to the fact that the Isleys were burning up the charts with classics like 1975's The Heat Is On and 1974's Live It Up, so they tried to cash in on their popularity by putting out collections of their earlier work. Soul Shout! looks back on the Isleys' recordings of the early 60s; the LP opens with the 1962 hit "Twist and Shout" and offers eight other recordings from that period, including "The Snake," "Never Leave Me, Baby," and "You Better Come Home." While "Twist and Shout" is essential, most of the other tunes aren't. But all of the songs are at least catchy, and considering that Soul Shout! went for as little as two dollars in 1975 -- as opposed to four, five, or six dollars for an album of new Isley's material -- you would have to say that it was worth the price of admission.